Canadians Back Tougher Gang Sentences and Legalized Marijuana

By
Doug Ward, The Vancouver Sun
on March 5, 2009

Canadians strongly support tougher sentencing to deal with an apparent surge in gangs, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll says. But half of Canadians also back the legalization of marijuana, the drug which fuels most organized crime activity, especially in B.C.

A huge majority of those polled (at least 93 per cent) support two measures recently proposed by the Conservative government: treating any gang-related homicide as a first-degree murder and ensuring mandatory minimum prison sentences for drive-by-shootings and other serious drug-crimes.

The Angus Reid Strategies online poll surveyed 1,007 randomly selected Canadian adults from Feb. 26 to Feb. 27. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

There is also strong support for three measures recently suggested by B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal: relaxing the evidence disclosure law to allow for a quick prosecution of gang members (81 per cent), eliminated the sentencing provision that gives offenders two days credit for every day spent in custody awaiting trial (76 per cent) and allowing police to wiretap access to intercept cell phone conversations (68 per cent).

While Canadians want tougher laws against gangsters, they are less enamoured with the Harper government’s moves to curb illegal drug consumption. Almost half of Canadians reject Ottawa’s move to scrap the previous Liberal government’s marijuana decriminalization legislation.

A slight majority (51 per cent) opposes the termination of the “harm-reduction” programs, including the supervised injection sites and needle-exchange programs.

While recreational marijuana will be legalized in Canada starting in July of this year, prepared...

Comments

4 Comments

Hoperino on
May 15, 2009 7:41 pm

Fighting ignorance and hate [which go together so often]and exposing lies to the light of truth is the goal of every thoughtfull and loving person.

Anti-Drug laws are based on ignorance and lies, with greed as the motive.

Religious based hatred exists in every religion…Christians hating Muslims, Muslims hating Christians… I think that shows that religion does nothing to create better people, or a better world.

Prohibition and Religion go together. In fact, it was certain religious organisations that helped get the prohibition laws passed in the first place [1914].

Perhaps we would be better off banning religion… but banning anything is a violent act in itself, so the best we can hope for is “reason”. There is a quote that goes something like this: “if everyone was being rational, there would be no religion”. Uh huh.

smokey on
March 11, 2009 5:11 am

Smoke some more.Where the fuck do you live?Obviously where they at least have the ‘net.

the only hater here is you. islam has nothing to do with the article or gang sentences. there are mosques in canada because we have a muslim population. most muslims are regular religious people. sharia law is no threat to current canadian laws and are incompatible with our charter of right and freedoms.

i hope your post is removed and people stay on topic.

SATAN BREATHED INTO MOHAMMED'S LUNGS on
March 9, 2009 9:33 am

F*CK the drug bills.OUTLAW islam:POLITICAL CULT OF HATE.The REAL Threat to Canadian
F*CK islam!
60,000+++ muslims in the Greater Vancouver area.WHY? Sharil Law!Why are there 4 mosques…….in Anchorage,Alaska?!Why are there 3 mosques………in Missoula,Montana?!WTF is going on here,Canada?